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The photos I have used on this site are mainly my own or those of Carol Mullineux and Matthew Sutton to whom I am grateful.
For the other photos and quotes, I have tried, wherever possible, to give the relevant credits and references.
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-- Richard Sutton

The Cuckoos are back!

With the dramas of bird migration taking place everywhere, some of the tagged cuckoos we have been following are back from Africa.

“Nothing is so beautiful as Spring – When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush….. all in a rush with richness……… all this juice and joy a strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning”.

From Gerard Manley-Hopkins’ poem ‘Spring’

A Willow Warbler, fresh back from Africa, has been giving me its first song adding its voice to the spring symphony as it starts in earnest. Birdsong is uplifting. We’re all the richer for ‘all this juice and joy‘. But how we wish there was more.

The azure bluebells wash the woods ‘wet like lakes‘, but there’s one missing sound. That ‘wandering Voice’ echoing through the fields and woods with its two notes bringing romance and mystery, A mere two-note repertoire yet what an impact that ‘magic cuckoocall‘ makes. It has inspired poets, writers and musicians for generations and is part of our native folklore. It is the traditional sound of spring and early summer, comforting and reassuring that the natural world is alive and well.

But sadly all is not well. For apart from very occasional reports there is a sense that something is missing in our English spring countryside. The spring is full of richness, other birds are singing and the cuckoo flowers are out, yet the cuckoo’s voice is not there – spring seems incomplete.

“Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring! Even yet thou art to me No bird, but an invisible thing, A voice, a mystery;

The same whom in my school-boy days I listened to; that Cry Which made me look a thousand ways In bush, and tree, and sky.

To seek thee did I often rove Through woods and on the green; And thou wert still a hope, a love; Still longed for, never seen.”

From Wordsworth’s poem ‘To the Cuckoo’

Cuckoo Tracking

In recent years the British Trust for Ornithology has been tracking the migration of cuckoos. I’ve been following the satellite records of this year’s group of tagged birds with great interest over the past few days. You can imagine my delight to see that the cuckoo named ‘Knepp’, tagged on the Knepp estate here in Sussex last summer, was first to arrive back home. Hopefully his voice is being heard again on the estate now, soon to be joined by ‘Lambert’ another of the Knepp tagged cuckoos. One of the other birds ‘PJ’, has returned to his place of tagging in Suffolk. First tagged in 2016 ‘PJ’ has successfully been to Africa and back three times – quite an achievement for both the bird and its tracking equipment!

‘Our’ Cuckoos

These are hardly ‘our’ cuckoos, but temporary guests for 6-9 weeks in the spring. These birds spend over 4 months wintering in the Congo basin area, but spend the other 6 months in their slow, stage-by-stage migration. Choosing several different routes southwards in July- August, on their return in March most move west to the West African coast. Here they feed up in preparation for the mammoth 50-60 hour flight across the Sahara, stopping off in Morocco and Algeria region and later in Spain and Portugal on their way north.

These returning cuckoos and my first willow warbler fresh back from Africa are but part of the unnoticed millions of epic dramas taking place at this time of year. Ever moving, restlessly driven by instinct and the pull of the seasons, these small creatures are making these incredible journeys, yet navigating back to their exact starting points. A wonder indeed!

This local lane would be an ideal place for cuckoos, perhaps they used to be here, but now they are long gone. We dream on of this romantic sound becoming again the indicator of spring across our countryside. We forgive this bird’s parasitic lifestyle and wish it back and wish it well. While we dream we will also be following future tracking with interest and I will, no doubt, be rooting for ‘Knepp’ again.

Post Script- ‘Larry’ caps all!

Since finishing this post I’ve just noticed the return of ‘Larry’ to the Forest of Bowland where he was first tagged in 2015. He has now completed 4 round- trips to Africa and back, covering about 40,000 miles – amazing bird!

There is so much more yet to be discovered about the wonders of bird migration. We could do with a lot more ‘Larrys, PJs and Knepps’ to grace our springs here in Britain. To see the latest news visit the BTO cuckoo tracking site.

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8 thoughts on “The Cuckoos are back!”

I always love your posts, Richard, though I have been absent from WordPress for a while. And I share your excitement about the return of the cuckoo. The wood thrush has returned to my garden this week and hearing its song again means that all is right with the world.

We haven’t heard a cuckoo here for many years now and the last time it was a bird passing through. The last time a willow warbler was heard here was three years ago – my favourite summer bird song too! Last year a turtle dove sang here for one day and was gone. All these birds were commonplace twenty years ago.
I have been reading Gerard Manley-Hopkins this spring. Such an innovative poet for his time.

How wonderful you heard a turtle dove – they’re so rare these days. I’m more and more thankful for places like the Knepp estate. It seems increasingly full of birds and other wildlife and offers a way of hope for better things for the environment in the future. Do go on with Gerard-Manley Hopkins. His lovely poems need to be read aloud for their full effect.

I studied a couple of GMH poems for my O’ Levels and have loved his poetry since then. I agree about reading him out loud – I read ‘God’s Grandeur’ today; wonderful!
I am very lucky to have heard a turtle dove but it saddens me to think that just twenty years ago I heard them all through the summer and now hardly ever.

I’ve never heard a cuckoo – at least not that I remember. It’s a shame that what seems normal now isn’t normal at all and I wonder what I’ve forgotten that I didn’t pay attention to when I was younger.

Two friends have reported hearing cuckoos recently in Brecon, Wales and in the Norfolk Broads. There are some singing here in our part of Sussex. To hear one again would bring back happy memories of the past.